Late
by TrickstersImp
Summary: "So now you show up." She spat at Jerome. "I can't believe you would stand me up. Does it make you happy knowing how hurt I was? I know you need to have your fun, but honestly this is too far." For Songwriter18's Jara Contest.


_**Before you read, I just want to let you know that the words in bold have nothing to do with the story. It's just for Songwriter18 to check.**_

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><p><em>Jerome Clarke<em> was late. He was running down the street as fast as his legs could possibly carry him but he was doubtful if he would make it. In fact he had already missed the beginning of it and Mara had probably been waiting for twenty minutes already. He wondered how long Mara would wait for him to arrive and hoped that it was a least enough time for him to manage to get there. He whizzed around the corner breathing heavily and trying to keep going. It felt like he was running a marathon. He was cursing Alfie a million times a second as he pushed himself along, he really couldn't miss this completely. He couldn't possibly be that stupid. He had been waiting what seemed like years for this opportunity, what had in fact been years.

And all it took was a water gun and a pin to potentially ruin his chances.

He cursed Victor a thousand times too in his head, as well as Eddie and Patricia and Amber and anybody who had gotten him into this mess in the first place. He hadn't even been part of this is in the first place, but he was just an innocent bystander to the scene of the crime.

Okay, that was a lie. Jerome Clarke had never managed to be an innocent bystander in anything he had ever witnessed. But the sight of Amber's face as he and Alfie appeared with the water guns almost made it all worth it. The key word there was the _almost._

It got worse when Patricia and Eddie had appeared from their _date. _He should have definitely noticed Alfie sneaking out with Amber jamming the lock by shoving a pin in the **door-handle**. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad because _that_ couple was back together. They were sickly sweet half the time and Alfie was beginning to be more loyal to Amber than he was to _him_, his best friend since pre-school.

Jerome checked his watch one more time and sped up. No matter how much extra punishment Victor had given him because of it all, even after being stuck in a room with just the love-birds Patricia and Eddie for two hours, he could not be late and knew that his excuses wouldn't count.

This was his chance to prove to Mara that he wasn't a **heart-less dragon, **after all. He still couldn't believe that she had agreed to go out with him. His heart soared thousands of feet up into the sky whenever he thought about it. It crashed back down into the ground when he thought about missing it.

_Mara Jaffray_ was bored. She sat there stifling a **yawn** and tapping her hand on the park bench where Jerome had said he would meet her. Maybe she was stupid for saying yes, but she knew, she had known for a long time that she was falling in love with him. She hadn't been able to stop herself thinking that anymore.

Mick and her were over. That feeling that she had last year that made it so unbearable to watch Mick with Amber was gone and now her heart had seemed make an unconscious decision to fall in love with the last guy that she had ever expected to love with all her heart. That sounded ridiculous on a first date, didn't it? And Jerome didn't even seem to want to show up to this in the first place.

Well, all she could say was that her heartwas kind of overpowering her **brain **right now. But deep down in her brain there was a thought that she was trying to avoid at all costs. She knew Jerome far too well and far too **sagacious **to not have even thought about it.

She didn't want to think about what would happen if this was just all some **grotesque **joke that Jerome had decided to pull. She could see all too clearly an image of Jerome standing her up and waiting until she was home alone crying to ask her why he would ever consider going out with her. As much as she hated to think about it, there was a distinct possibility of it happening.

No! Jerome had changed, anybody could see that. A year ago he wouldn't have even talked to his Dad, let alone managed to get him out of prison. He was a kinder person now; he hadn't pulled a prank in months. He hadn't been vicious. She knew it was for her as well and that was what made it so wonderful. She had to trust Jerome or this would fail before it had even started in the first place. And Mara wanted this to work; she wanted to be able to call Jerome her boyfriend and to kiss him whenever she felt like, not feel guilty for thinking about him that well.

She was sick of pretending that nothing was between the two. She was just sick of it all.

_Mick Campbell_ was… to put it delicately, pissed. He was pissed at the world tonight. He had flown half way across the world on an **airplane **to see his girlfriend and by the end of the night she was no longer his girlfriend, and she was kissing some other guy.

Right now, Mick honestly wished that Jerome was **dead.** He wished that he would fall into a black hole and die. Mara was his girlfriend and he was in love with her. Why did Mick have to go in the first place? If he didn't it would be him kissing Mara right now, and not having had to watch while she kissed another guy. Who moves on that fast? The rage was all bottling up inside of him and he was angry at everything. He would have to go back to Australia broken-hearted, he had realised that by now. Almost everybody in his old House was in a relationship now. Alfie had Amber, another of his exes, Patricia had Eddie, Nina had Fabian, and Mara had _Jerome. _It wasn't fair.

Jerome was everything that was wrong with the entire world. Jerome Clarke was a monster. He was corrupt, arrogant, vicious, and just plain horrible. Why was it that he had managed to steal his girlfriend? Never in a million years would Mick have imagined that possible scenario. He wanted to go back and repeatedly hit Jerome in the fact until he begged for mercy. Mick was in a sick mind set at the moment and he was enjoying it. He was enjoying the gruesome thought of having Clark and his feet begging. Mick was crossing the line of the human ever so slowly and becoming an **animal**. That was why he was in the park, just to get away from it all. He didn't want to go back to Anubis anyway; there wasn't space for him there. He had been replaced. It wasn't as if he had any close friends back there in the first place though, he had only had Mara, and now she was gone. The closest thing he had to a close friend was his old room-mate, Fabian, and you could see exactly how close they were.

There was nothing left for him there, so he was here instead, just purely killing time until he went back. It was almost funny, in a sick way, how he hadn't been able to wait to get here and now he honestly couldn't wait to leave. He turned the corner and his heart broke once again into a million more pieces.

It was _Mara,_ sitting on a bench and sighing, her eyes almost shut.

Mara was supposed to be out with _Jerome. _Mara was supposed to have moved on. The awful night of her relationship with him was supposed to have blossomed into the beautiful dawn of her and Jerome.

It made Mick sick. It made Mick angry. It made Mick determined.

He wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Purposefully he walked over to Mara, keeping his chiselled chin up high. He brushed through his hand, trying to be as **subtle **as possible, even though Mara hadn't seen him yet.

And then she looked up.

Mara looked up at the guy in front of him, with this sheepish and confident look on his face. It wasn't the guy she had been hoping would finally arrive, but instead it was the guy she was praying wouldn't. She needed to move on from Mick, and she had. Her and Mick were over.

Looking at him now, she didn't find him as **gorgeous** as she always used to and he wasn't irresistible. In fact looking at him now, she didn't feel that shiver that ran down her spine when she saw Jerome or feel the urge to kiss him immediately. She didn't feel anything.

But Jerome was nowhere to be seen.

And she was starting to get the feeling that he wasn't going to show up at all.

Mick sat down next to her.

"Hi" He said, and it was funny how nervous one 'hi' could make her.

"Hey" She said, with a tiny look in her eye pleading for him to go away. Sadly Mick didn't seem to get the message.

"So why are you out here all alone then? Mick smirked, finally catching Mara's glance and understanding what it meant. But Mick knew how to get around that well. "So what, just because you dumped me, I'm not allowed to care about you anymore." He stood up and held out his hand for Mara to take.

"Come on" He said, in a quiet voice and Mara had to realise that her earlier theory about Jerome was right. That brought a sick dullness to her now. "You look cold; I'll walk you back to the house."

_Amber Millington_ was seriously confused. Mara had left for a date with Jerome and returned with Mick. He had his arm around her and all. She wasn't sure whether to be happy or not about all of that.

Jerome wasn't exactly her favourite person ever, but she wanted Mara to be happy. She honestly thought that Jerome was making Mara happy. She didn't understand how this could have happened anyway. You would have to be blind not to see how crazy Jerome was about Mara. And by now the whole school knew that Mara had _finally _said yes to Jerome, after what seemed like a million years. Of course, they had only known about the previous times after Mara said yes that time. But it had seemed like Jara, as Amber personally liked to call it, was all set to go. She guessed she was wrong though, and having dated Mick in the past, she could see the appeal of a guy like him.

She just really hoped that Mara wouldn't go and get her heart broken again.

_Alfie Lewis_ was scared. Right now, Jerome had him by the shirt, pressed against the wall.

"I am going to murder you." He snarled, a serious look in his eye.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Alfie protested and Jerome just threw back his head and laughed, setting Alfie back down on the ground.

"Oh, you're sorry. That makes me feel so much better. I missed my one chance at a date with Mara because you locked me in a room, and you are sorry. That makes everything so much better."

Alfie cringed backwards from Jerome, the triumph from his earlier prank having worn off by now. Jerome looked seriously angry, and to be honest Alfie didn't really blame him. Jerome had been waiting for this for as long as he could remember and had it cruelly ripped out from underneath his nose. Jerome had a right to be cross at him and cross he was. Jerome looked absolutely furious.

"Then why are you here? Go apologise!" Alfie said frantically taking a couple more steps back, but Jerome just put his head in his hands for a second, before whispering almost so quietly that Alfie, two steps away from Jerome couldn't hear it.

"You're right." And while Alfie was standing there, trying to comprehend that Jerome had admitted that he was right for what seemed like the first time in years, Jerome was dashing along the corridor.

Mara was sitting in room, and Mick was sitting opposite. For the first time in a while, it was awkward. They couldn't just sit and chat for some reason, and they weren't exactly going to start making out all of a sudden.

It was almost a relief when Jerome burst in the door… _almost._ Mick glanced back and suddenly you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

"Clarke." Mick said, resisting the urge to start a fight right here, right now.

Jerome looked at Mick and surprisingly, he didn't feel the frustration and the jealousy that he normally did. Jerome supposed that was because he had no reason to be jealous of Mick. Mick had nothing that Jerome wanted. Mick was just an over-confident meat-head.

"Leave the room Campbell." Mick stood up and faced Jerome square on.

"Make me." Mick forced out in almost a grunt at which point Jerome just took a good long look at him, and smiled.

"Campbell, go now, or wish you had. You can beat me up all you want, but none of that will ever change the fact that you had a chance with the most amazing girl in the world and you blew it."

Mick gulped as he knew what Jerome was saying was fairly true. He couldn't bring himself to swing the first punch, no matter how satisfying it would be to hear a crunch and watch Jerome's nose start to bleed. He slowly left the room with one last look over his shoulder.

"Call me if you need me, alright." He said as he left the room and Mara gave a little nod.

Now it was Mara's turn to be upset. And she was, in fact, Mara was livid.

"So now you show up." She spat at Jerome. "I can't believe you would stand me up. You've been asking me to go out with you for a year. Did it give you pleasure seeing what you did to me? Does it make you happy knowing how hurt I was? I know you need to have your fun, but this is honestly too far."

"Mara…" Jerome stuttered.

"No!" Mara called out and she walked right over to Jerome, close enough to kiss him, or slap him. "Jerome, you need to understand that this meant a lot to me, and to me it wasn't just some sick prank. I cared about you, and I thought you had changed. But obviously you haven't in the slightest"

"I have"

"Then why? Why did you do all of it? Why are you determined to make me **detest** you? Why did you decide to make me feel like a complete idiot for ever trusting you?"

"Mara, you can trust me." Jerome said wrapping his arm around her.

"Well" Mara began but Jerome placed his finger over her lips.

"You've had your turn; know I am going to talk. Mara, I am completely, head-over-heels, in love with you. I don't know what you thought I did, but I ran down the street after you. I tried my best. I would never have missed that on purpose."

Mara gulped back the tears that were starting to fall down her cheeks and realised that in her attempts not to seem like a fool, she had anyway.

"So you weren't just trying to lead me on and make me look like an idiot?"

"No" Jerome said, in a much softer voice "You did that all by yourself." Mara reached up to give Jerome that slap that she had been itching to do since he entered the room, but Jerome pulled her hand down and kissed her.

Jerome and Mara stood there, liplocked for what too them seemed like hours. But still, when they broke off it didn't seem like it had lasted long enough.

They were completely oblivious to the door swinging open and a small figure entering the room.

_Joy Mercer_ wished that these stupid couples would stop snogging in her bedroom.

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><p><em><strong>So yeah, that was an entry for Songwriter18's Jara Contest. I'm still new to HoA, so I'm not sure if I got them completely right, but I think I was kind of close.<strong>_

_**And Songwriter18, I didn't only use seven, I used twelve of them, and a bonus. Anyways, hoped you liked it and please review!**_

_**The Name Is A Lie, As Is The Cake**_

_**:)**_


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